What's For Thanksgiving? A heaping of Huffamoose (and friends)

THANKSGIVING week is primo time for benefit concerts with a serious reunion component.

Take, please, this Sunday's get-together of local alt-rock notables at the Ardmore Music Hall. A show top-billed by the rarely together Huffamoose, and featuring seasoned singer/songwriters Jim Boggia and Ben Arnold, and (Huffamoose offshoot) the Fractals.

No, there's not a turkey among 'em.

So, what's the deal? 'Tis the season when musicians and patrons feel generous of spirit, happy to put out effort and bucks for a worthy cause.

In this case, all the ticket money's destined for Dan's Voice, a new fund for the treatment of, and research into, head and neck cancer. It honors the memory of cancer-felled musician Dan Rich and founded by throat-cancer survivor Paul Reitano.

And, for sure, the preholiday timing makes the doing (and going) easier for all. Huffamoose's lead guitarist, Kevin Hanson, and drummer, Erik Johnson, both starting a break from their teaching gigs at University of the Arts, have had some time to rehearse for Sunday's gig with bassist Jim Stager.

The timing is even more fortuitous for Huffamoose lead singer Craig Elkins, now West Coast-based and mostly engaged as a Web designer. This weekend gives him two good reasons to come East to reunite with family and band family.

"When we were first approached by my friend Paul about getting involved, I thought it was a wonderful way to create awareness for Dan's Voice and a great reason to do another Huffamoose reunion," Hanson recently shared in a between-classes chat. "The idea was very appealing, because we've done only two reunions in the past seven years. And this is very much a family affair.

"We used to back Jim Boggia and shared many gigs with Ben Arnold. So when we got them onboard, it was a lock. Plus, we all used to enjoy playing the Ardmore Music Hall, back when it was Brownie's 23 East. What a great room. What's not to love?"

First meeting as music majors at Temple in the early 1990s, Huffamoose was (and remains) one of the quirkiest and more sophisticated alt-rock bands to ever come out of Philly. Think one part glossy jazz/pop cool, one part modern folk-rock melancholia, with an aggressively abstract lyrical overlay.

Today's listeners would cache them with spiritual offspring like Dr. Dog, definitely a Hanson fave, or maybe War on Drugs.

Back then, the guys niched nicely with urbane hipsters like Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Todd Rundgren and twangier bands like Counting Crows and the Wallflowers, whose record label (Interscope) also hooked up with Huffamoose for a spell.

"We had a nice run on the label with our second album [1997's "We've Been Had Again"] with good reviews, good radio play [especially for the modern-rock hit "Wait" and moody ballad "James"], said Hanson. "Interscope delivered as promised, with six months of setup, a year of tour support, lots of gigs. And we were really loving the adventure, the excitement. Even when we'd come home we'd still be so buzzed we'd have to go out to clubs and hear other bands play."

In what became the typical label-downsizing scenario, Huffamoose lost their deal after Interscope was conglomerated by parent company Universal Music's new owner (Edgar Bronfman Jr.) and "almost every artist that hadn't sold a minimum of 500,000 copies with their last album was dropped."

Not ready to give up the ship, Huffamoose then signed with Shanachie, an eclectic indie label whose resident A&R director, Randall Grass, lives in the area and looks out for our own.

Their third album, "I Wanna Be Your Pants," dished in 2000, made Huffamoose fans happy with crunchy rockers like "Johnny Depp Day" (set on South Street!) and the soaring "Isn't it Remarkable."

"But after having such support from Interscope, we were spoiled, took it for granted we'd get more of the same" from Shanachie, said Hanson. "In fact, they didn't have the resources to support us on tour with the van, the hotel rooms. Things started falling apart."

Getting married and starting a family became a priority for Hanson. His jazz-guitar training would make him an in-demand studio musician (working with the likes of Usher, Jay Z, the Roots, Musiq Soulchild) and win him teaching gigs at UArts.

And, with Huffamoose drummer Johnson and bassist Stager, he'd spin off the Fractals, a kindred group that works "six to 10" shows a year and "still enjoys putting out the occasional recording on our own," he said, with a laugh - most recently last year's sixpack, "Sakes Alive."